


Now & Always

by lizandletdie



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Rumbelle Showdown
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-29
Updated: 2014-07-29
Packaged: 2018-02-10 21:54:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2041611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizandletdie/pseuds/lizandletdie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Originally published for the Rumbelle Showdown on Tumblr under the name "Verity"</p><p>Rumpelstiltskin doesn't want to leave this child to grow up without a father, either.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Now & Always

**Author's Note:**

> This is set after the end of the series at some point, and after a return to FTL. My prompts were "Terrible news, Vampires, Gentle woman’s anger"
> 
> I hate that I have to do this, but apparently I do. If you're reading this fic anywhere besides AO3, it was posted without my consent and likely profited someone else. Please consider [donating](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=CZNGXGNP4PRX4&lc=US&item_name=The%20Mantis%20Fund&currency_code=USD&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF%3abtn_donate_SM%2egif%3aNonHosted) or swinging by my Tumblr (standbyyourmantis) to let me know what you thought!

 “Rumpelstiltskin!” the sound of his name echoing through the corridors of the Dark Castle was the first sign he had of the danger he was in, and even after some three-hundred-odd years of life, the sorcerer found his blood pumping just a little bit faster as the sound of footsteps in the hall approached the door to his tower.

“Rumpelstiltskin,” Belle scolded as she spilled into the room, just a bit unsteady at eight months pregnant and looking very angry with him at the moment. “Was there anything you wanted to tell me?”

He knew that tone of voice, and also knew there was no correct answer to that question.

“Ah...only that you look lovely today, sweetheart,” he said quickly, moving to offer her a chair and press a kiss to her forehead. She relaxed a bit at that, some of her anger evaporating at his attentions. Her mood swings were getting worse the further along she was, and he couldn't entirely say he blamed her. He was fairly certain she was now composed mostly of pregnant belly, and her aversion to his magical assistance left her deeply uncomfortable most of the day.

“I was thinking more along the lines of telling me why there's a vampire in the cellar,” she had insisted on calling the dungeon the cellar since their return to the Enchanted Forest, the idea of locking someone away appealing even less to her now than it had before they met.

“Well,” he began, “because if I kept him in the great hall he'd burn?”

Belle was not impressed with his quip.

“Why do we have one at all?” she asked, his silence confirming her suspicions entirely too easily for his taste.

“Oh Rumpel, is this about the potion again?”

Ever since her pregnancy began, he had been dedicated to finding something – anything – to extend his long life just a little bit more. It was ironic that the last 300 years couldn't have gone by fast enough, but now that he was mortal he would give anything for just a little more time.

“I only need the vampire for another three weeks, four at the most,” he explained, needing her to understand. “Just long enough to collect some blood at the full moon and again at the new moon.”

“Where did you even find a vampire?” she still sounded annoyed, but her body language had relaxed.

“Jefferson,” he admitted. Jefferson had begun making hats again on his return, or at least he had for Rumpelstiltskin, though he no longer made the jumps himself. “This one is from Frankenstein's land.”

“And who did you abandon there to bring it with you?” she sighed.

“Viktor had some things he wished to retrieve from home. I'll pick him up again when I return Nosferatu.”

“And the vampire is here willingly?”

“...not unwillingly?”

“Rumpel...”

“It was a deal,” he grumbled. “Trust me, he's getting handsomely rewarded for his time.”

“And you're not going to let him bite you?”

“Well, you must admit it would make nighttime feedings easier with the baby, but no. He will be gone before our child arrives. You have my word.”

This seemed to satisfy Belle, as he had known it would. She had never forbidden him the practice of magic outright since their return (and oh, what a relief it was to find he still had magic after True Love's Kiss had ended the curse, although perhaps he should have remembered that Regina had no curse and still possessed magic the first time she had tried to break the curse). Belle had ways, however, of subtly steering him towards less dangerous activities, with the exception of this one last mad quest.

They both knew, though neither one could admit it out loud, that he would not live forever. In twenty years or so, he would be practically at the end of his life while this child Belle was carrying would barely be an adult. Any other children (and he knew she hoped for others) would be teenagers or younger, and after losing Bae...he couldn't let another child grow up without a father, he just couldn't. On this they were united, Belle didn't want to lose him any more than he wanted to leave her and their fledgling family – the moment she told him she was pregnant had been the best and most terrible news he could have gotten. The chance to love a child again, the chance to fail all over.

She rose from her seat and came around to hug him, her body angled awkwardly to accommodate her girth. He wrapped one arm around her shoulders and rested the other on her belly, feeling his child within her. This was all for them, he reminded himself, he could not fail his daughter the way he had failed his son.

“I'll find a way, Belle.”

“I know,” she said, tucking her head under his chin. “Promise me that you'll be done with this before the baby comes, though. If it's not ready by then, we'll just...we'll figure something else out.”

“If I'm right, then I promise.”

“No,” she replied. “Promise me regardless. I'd rather our child have good memories of you than none at all.”

He smiled bitterly and kissed the top of her head. She was right, he knew, but it was so hard to accept.

“What about the spell you were going to use on Bae?” she murmured. “The one to turn him back into a child?”

“Told you about that, did he?”

“He thought it was funny by the time I heard about it,” she said with a shrug. “I imagine he thought it was less so when it happened.” They still rarely spoke of Bae, the wound was still fresh for both of them even after all these years, but sometimes Rumpelstiltskin needed to hear his son's name spoken as a reminder that Bae had once lived and that he had meant something to Belle as well.

“Well, regardless, that particular spell won't work.”

“Why not?”

“For one thing, I don't want to be a child again. And for another...well, it has a tendency to erase your memories.”

“Oh. I take it you didn't tell him that part.”

“Not in so many words,” he held her tighter.

“So what is your current plan?” she pulled away, plastering a smile onto her face.

“Vampires are one of the few beings besides the Dark One that possess life eternal,” he was becoming more animated already, moving to show her his phials. “It won't make me immortal, but if I can slow my aging by half...age, say, ten years in the next twenty, or twenty in the next forty...Belle, I'd never have to leave you.”

He could hear the impish mannerisms in his voice, and feel the flourishes in his hands, but Belle didn't seem to mind. This was how she had fallen in love with him, he reminded himself. This was the man she had loved.

“And this will really work?”

“It really will,” he smirked. And he knew it would, because Rumpelstiltskin would do anything for his family and this was his family, for now and always.


End file.
